All About Full-Time Maids

[m-mommy]

autumnbronze:

m-mommy,


I had an Indo maid for 3 mths who worked in HK previously. V gd in Cantonese. V good house keeper - a perfectionist.

However,

She complained she could not take it anymore as workload was heavier. She will whine that she is having this pain and that pain etc .. You know how tiny HK housing can be. Also too streetsmart and insisted on doing things her own way as HK employers left her with bb in the grdparents flat. She had a high life there and squandered all her pay shopping etc ...

After 3 mths of mediating with her and even telling her that we will up her salary, we buay tahan send her back as she was instigating quarrels with the next door maid. And my MIL was suffering from high blood pressure because of her.

But then again, mine is one side of the story. You have read AuntieM's side, so you may not face the same problem. Just thought that its good you know so that you can be prepared and prepare the maid as well.

My 2 cents

Thanks autumnbronze for your valuable info

I actually don feel too good when mom insisted to employ her. I was given 2 choices one is this ex HK, the other one is ex Sin 2 years working with muslim family. I wanted the ex Sin one, but mom say don want cos scare she the veri slow pace type. And both of us really give up on the quality of maid nowaday, fresh one too 'gong', experience one take advantage and now we got 1 siow one at home, aiyo really sian....

But hor your this maid really 'power', u still can tahan and wan to up her salary, if is me hor, already kick her out of the hse liao, i think she is taking advantage of you.

I don pin high hope for this ex HK, but I pray for miracle lor :stupid:

[autumnbronze]

m-mommy:

autumnbronze:

m-mommy,


I had an Indo maid for 3 mths who worked in HK previously. V gd in Cantonese. V good house keeper - a perfectionist.

However,

She complained she could not take it anymore as workload was heavier. She will whine that she is having this pain and that pain etc .. You know how tiny HK housing can be. Also too streetsmart and insisted on doing things her own way as HK employers left her with bb in the grdparents flat. She had a high life there and squandered all her pay shopping etc ...

After 3 mths of mediating with her and even telling her that we will up her salary, we buay tahan send her back as she was instigating quarrels with the next door maid. And my MIL was suffering from high blood pressure because of her.

But then again, mine is one side of the story. You have read AuntieM's side, so you may not face the same problem. Just thought that its good you know so that you can be prepared and prepare the maid as well.

My 2 cents

Thanks autumnbronze for your valuable info

I actually don feel too good when mom insisted to employ her. I was given 2 choices one is this ex HK, the other one is ex Sin 2 years working with muslim family. I wanted the ex Sin one, but mom say don want cos scare she the veri slow pace type. And both of us really give up on the quality of maid nowaday, fresh one too 'gong', experience one take advantage and now we got 1 siow one at home, aiyo really sian....

But hor your this maid really 'power', u still can tahan and wan to up her salary, if is me hor, already kick her out of the hse liao, i think she is taking advantage of you.

I don pin high hope for this ex HK, but I pray for miracle lor :stupid:

Hi m-mommy,

Only because she was a solid housekeeper lah ...

Somemore, we thought by upping her salary, she will be more motivated. Unfortunately that didn't work

[autumnbronze]

peapot:

Autumnbronze,


who is your maid agency? I agree that the maid agency plays a part in matching the right maid to the right family. Now its so difficult to get a good maid and agency.


My maid is totally hopeless in caring for children. General housework she is ok. she's more suited for families who only need maids to do housework and nothing else. She also plans to work for me only 8months to clear her loan. I asked her then why bother to waste time to come Singapore to work. Wasting not only my time but also her time??? Sigh!! She also keep saying 2 years is very long and she is very tired!!???

Hi peapot,

Will PM you by 2nite.

You chk PM 2morrow morn

[LOLMum]

m-mommy:

Hihi, any one has experience hiring an ex hongkong maid, any comments to share on these maids, pls share, as mine will be coming next week, totally no idea how to deal with her

hi,

one thing for sure, language shouldnt be a problem and yes, i guess she will be expecting day off on sunday and public holidays. Are you going to give that to her?

from what i know of my relatives and friends in hong kong, most have only 1 meal at home ie dinner. and not all members come home for it so some maids only need to cook for kids. so dont hold your expectation too high about her cooking.

housework, my friends and relataives send their office and expensive clothes to laundry shops. so maid only needs to wash school uniforms and some casual clothes. place is small and not as dusty as in spore, so not much of cleaning is needed.

kids are in school the whole day, so maid is alone or with grandma.

but wow, you have 5 adults and 2 kids, so hopefully, it would not freak her out.

however she might turned out to be a gem. so best of luck.

cheers

[peapot]

Ya, I think HK maid will be smarter and also can understand chinese if she works for China chinese family instead of HK chinese family. But then again hiring maid is really "hian-suah".


Change maid can really cost a lot of money eventhough agency tells you free replacement because you still need to top up the difference in loans between new maid and old maid. pay for new insurance. pay for existing maid’s levy to be transferred out. Total could amount to $600 for each "free replacement"!!

[Lynn2010]

Reading some of the last few post, I feel good that I’m not alone. I also change maid till sian. The lesson I learnt is that - dont be too nice. Just last 3 years - one always bring my daughter to take school bus late, second one not only she gets into fights with my dd, after one mth into the job, she asked for sundays off every week although we agreed alternate Sundays (which was what she asked for during the interview). Third one too gong - teach her to cook sphagetti for a month (everyday same dish), finally asked her to cook sphagetti, she literally cooked JUST the sphagetti and no sauce (that’s for dinner). Next, i get a dishonest one always lost money (ask her to pay the school bus driver for example), then I get one keeps on talking on the phone - stuck the stupid earphone in her ears the whole day. Yes, I did tell her I dont like it, but she continued. Then I get one who down a bottle (1.25ml) of coke every 2 days.


I suppose I’m not strict enough, TOO NICE, my agent said and she doesnt want to do my business (I’m not joking). Eg. the one who drinks a bottle of coke every 2 days, after I found out, I told her not to take my drinks at home and I gave her a drink allowance of $10 every month. I told her I dont care what she buys to drink but just dont touch mine!

[minnie2004]

Blobbi:

I think it's the secretive nature that you dislike - who would like this sort of thing in their own home? This incident of you seeing the food is over, so forget about it. Next time if it happens again, you might want to say loudly but cheerfully, \"What's that?\" Keep it open and friendly, discuss about the recipe even, to show that she has nothing to hide. You might even ask for a spring cleaning. Don't give her warning - just step into the room and say - \"Wah, so dirty - can you get rid of the nespapers?\" Stand around a bit so she feels uncomfortable, and then move off. Have to check later on to make sure she's cleaned it up - if not, just point to what's still annoying you and tell her to do it.

You're right, it's the secretive nature of the whole incident that I don't feel comfortable with. She really doesn't talk much. We have to guess what she's thinking most of the time. We always encourage her to speak out if there are any problems or if she's not happy with something. We're afraid she might do something crazy if she keeps accumulating any resentment toward us. But she does work harder than our former more-sociable maids. So I guess we have to take the good with the bad.

Today she bought some expensive fish for dinner but she didn't take out her food first as usual but wait for us to finish first (b/c the fish is quite small). I think that's quite considerate of her. It's as if she's reading this forum

[minnie2004]

m-mommy:

Hihi, any one has experience hiring an ex hongkong maid, any comments to share on these maids, pls share, as mine will be coming next week, totally no idea how to deal with her

It's quite common for hk employers to hire ex-spore maids but not the other way around. HK employers prefer ex-spore maids as they're usually well trained and have lower expectations on benefits (only 1 day off a month etc). Maybe your maid chose to come here b/c she doesn't need to pay a lot of fees upfront. So she could be using Spore as a stepping stone to other countries, unless she has other personal reasons such as having relatives here. But since you've already hired her, just keep your fingers crossed. Good luck!

[peapot]

Lynn2010, I thought you were really cute!! I have never heard of $10 drink allowance for maid!! Ha…so curiously are you still employing any maids now?

[Lynn2010]

Hi peapot,


Yes. The currently one is the one I gave $10 drink allowance, she lasted the longest - 8.5 months now. Her work is ok, she’ll do her work and can cook well so I close one eye so long as she is honest and doing her part. Both my hubby & I work and my 2 dd (P5 & S2) at home, so my maid has quite gd life. By 8.30pm, they are usually free to do anything. I allow them to use (their own ph) or sewing or read newspapers; I dont care what they do (of course decent things) so long as they can wake up the next day. I hope she can complete her contract. I really sian changing maids. You have gd agency to recommend or are u running an agency??